It’s the third consecutive season Chelsea Women face Crystal Palace in the Women’s FA Cup. The difference this time is we’re facing them in our first match of the competition.
Lose this and you’re out. Simple as. Meaning even though we’re facing a team that just got relegated from the Women’s Super League, we don’t get to coast towards victory.
Date / Time: Saturday, January 16, 2026, 12:30 GMT; 7:30am EST Venue: Kingsmeadow, Kingston upon Thames, UK Referee: Stacey Fullicks Forecast: Cloudy and windy
On TV: none (UK); none (USA)
Streaming: none (UK); none (USA)
P.S.: Chelsea’s official website says the match is not being televised nor streamed and there’s no information on broadcasts in the usual websites that do so worldwide. However there will be live match coverage in the club’s official app, website and social media channels.
Chelsea team news: Our return from the winter break was with style, with a resounding 5-0 victory over West Ham. It bodes well for a team looking to keep up momentum and use it to defend the domestic treble conquered last season.
The issue is, our options for the upcoming match are somewhat limited by injuries. Aggie Beever-Jones, Catarina Macario, Keira Walsh and Niamh Charles are all out of contention. At least they’re on a good track to recover and perhaps feature in our games next week.
Crystal Palace team news: The Eagles finally got promoted to England’s top tier from the Women’s Championship in 2024. This season they’re back in the second tier, now called Women’s Super League 2, sitting at fifth place in the competition’s table.
They are in good form under manager Jo Potter, with their only loss since mid-November coming as a 2-0 scoreline in Arsenal’s favour in a Women’s League Cup match. They did give the Gunners a fight, and they’ll be looking to do the very same against us in the FA Cup.
Previously: A simple 1-0 win, courtesy of a Lauren James goal in the second half to get us through to the FA Cup semifinals last season.
